THE DIAMOND CARTEL Although the United States is the principal consumer of the world's dia- mond supply,' the diamond industry is so cartelized as to be virtually imper- vious to pressure by American users of diamonds. Within the past ten years industrial diamonds have become indispensable to various high-speed, pre- cision manufacturing operations.2 Since distribution of ninety-five percent of the world's diamond production is channelized through a single marketing combine, competitive forces within the industry have been short circuited.a Therefore consumer resistance has been impracticable and American efforts to obtain a better bargaining position have so far been ineffective. The cartel is completely foreign-controlled and operates entirely outside the United States,4 thus obviating effective action under the antitrust laws and making 1. Leslie, Diamonds as Tools Speed up Victory, DoMEsTIc CoxriRcE, Aug. 1945, p, 28. Today, the United States uses approximately 90% of the world's production of Indus- trial diamonds. § 29 Complaint, DeBeers Consolidated Mines Ltd. v. United States, 325 U.S. 212 (1945) [hereinafter referred to as Complaint]. This figure includes all cate- gories of industrial diamonds--ballas, boart and carbonado. For a description of the types of industrial diamonds, see Diamonds for Victory, FOREIGN COMMERCE, Jan. 17, 1942, p. 4; Industrial Diamonds,.FORTUNE, June 1935, p. 22. Carbonado is rare and almost entirely confined to Brazil and will not enter into the discussion hereafter. Post-war production should produce the following ratios of diamond types: out of every 10,000 carats 250 will be carbonado, 1,900 ballas, 1,975 gemstones, and 5,875 boart. Until 1940, diamond imports were chiefly gemstones for luxury purposes. 2. Leslie, supra note 1, at 28. For a general list of industrial uses for diamonds, see § 21 Complaint; Grodzinski, Manifold Uses of Industrial Diamonds, 15 CRowlr COLONIST 383, 385 (1945) ; U. S. Exec. Agreement Ser. 317 (Dept. State 1943) IndutsirialDiamonds, (March 26, 1943) app. IV, §§ 1-5. [hereinafter referred to as Industrial Diamond Treaty]. 3. Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, speaking as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Degeers, said of the subsidiary corporation of the diamond cartel which acts as the sales agency, "The Diamond Trading Company . handles approximately 95 per cent of tile total world production, and it will be appreciated that, although the ideal of 100 per cent has not yet been achieved, we are nearer to it now than at any time in the past, and what I may call the uncontrolled diamond production is really a negligible part' of the trade." CHiLvERs, THE STORY OF DEBEERs v. (1939). See LEITH, WORLD MINERALS AND WORLD P.AcE 126, 130 (1943) ; HEXNER, INTERNATIONAL CARTELS 252 (1946). 4. More than 90% of the world's known diamond deposits are to be found in the continent of Africa. See LEITh, op. cit. supra note 3, at 96. The remainder are primarily found in South America. See id. at 26. At least two possible sources of diamonds exist in the United States (in Arkansas and Kentucky), see infra n. 51, but both deposits are insignificant and have been unprofitable'to mine. The sales center from which African diamonds are distributed today is London. Buss- less Abroad, FORTUNE, April 1945, p. 250; cf. infra n. 17. At previous times Antwerp, Capetown and Berlin have also acted as selling markets for diamionds. The countries primarily concerned, all of which are favorably inclined toward monopo- listic practices, are the Union of South Africa, British Gold Coast Colony, Belgian Congo, Portuguese Angola, French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa. Since all of these countries were aligned with the United Nations in World War II and will probably remain within the sphere of Anglo-American influence, there is no great military urgency 19471 THE DIAMOND CARTEL 1405 other forms of governmental action difficult. Consequently, protection of the American diamond user presents a uniquely complex problem in the applica- tion of correctives for the concentration of economic power. This discussion will attempt to analyze the structure of the diamond in- dustry as a basis for the evaluation of three methods for curbing the power of the diamond cartel and enhancing the bargaining power of American con- sumers. Legal suit by the United States government would mean the prose- cution of the members of the diamond cartel under the anti-trust laws. Such a suit was instituted in January 1945 and is presently being argued in the federal courts.5 Unilateral economic action by the American government, upon the principle of opposing the cartel's monopoly with a government monopoly, presents a second possible method of attack. The final possibility, diplomatic agreement, will be attempted at the International Trade Conference in Havana. STRUCTURE OF THE INDUSTRY Since ninety-six percent of the world's diamond supply is mined in Africa, African diamond production is practically synonymous with the diamond in- dustry.6 Today the product of Africa's diamond industry has two main pur- poses. Until recently diamonds were in demand almost exclusively for their value as gems,7 but during World War II an extensive industrial use for diamonds in high-speed precision manufacturing developed, until today about six times as many carats of diamonds are sold annually for industrial pur- poses as are sold for gemstones. The pipe mines of South Africa are rich in gemstones, as high as thirty-five percent of their yield being suitable for gem purposes. While industrial diamonds are thus largely a by-product of South African diamond production, the alluvial deposits in Western and Central Africa-the other main source of African diamonds-yield stones that are mainly suitable only for industrial purposes. To control this sole important source of the world's diamond supply the to break the diamond cartel. But from the economic viewpoint this factor may tend to thwart direct American action against the cartel because it is domiciled in friendly terri- tory, primarily the British Empire. 5. United States v. DeBeers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., Civil Action 29-446 (S.D.N.Y. 1945). For comments on this suit see Business Abroad, FonTuatr, Apr. 1945, p. 250. 6. See § 28 Complaint. The discovery of diamonds in the bed of the Vaal River in South Africa in 1867 led to the "Diamond Rush" of 1870. Prior to this time the world's supply of diamonds consisted of about 20,000,000 carats, unearthed chiefly in India and Brazil. Since 1870 Africa has contributed approximately 275,000,000 carats of diamonds while the rest of the world has produced around 12,000,000 carats. Hereafter references to "the diamond industry" will deal exdlusively with the African produqtion and its market- ing unless otherwise indicated. 7. Diamonds, FoRTUNE, May 1935, p. 73; Industrial Diamonds, Foruun, June 1935, p. 22. See supra n. 1. 1406 THE YALE LAW JOURNAL (Vol. 56.: 1404 major African diamond producers have successfully organized one of the world's most powerful international cartels by a combination of two policies -direct ownership of mines, and a single marketing agency for all rough dia- mond sales.8 The chief members of this cartel are the African diamond pro- ducing syndicate known as the "Big Four"-British DeBeers, Belgian For- miniere, Portuguese Diamang, and Anglo-French CAST9-of which DeBeers is clearly dominant. The creation of a monopoly in South Africa under the DeBeers Consoli- dated Mines, Ltd. followed a pattern familiar to the architects of many an American industrial empire. Commencing its omnivorous corporate growth in 1881 by uniting individual claims at one of the world's richest pipe10 mines into the first pipe mine to be operated as a single unit, DeBeers gradually swallowed up through stock purchase and financial manipulation one com- petitor after another" until today12 it directly owns or controls, with a few 8. "In the purely diamond sphere Rhodes laid it down as the policy of DeBeers to acquire the control by amalgamation or purchase of all important producers of diamonds in South Africa, and to arrange, in so far as possible, for the entire diamond productions of the world to be marketed through one channel. These remain the fundamental principles upon which the Diamond Trade is based." Sir Ernest Oppenheimer in a Foreword to CHiLVERS, THE STORY OF DEBEEs v. (1939). 9. DeBeers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., referred to hereafter as DeBeers; Soclet6 Internationale Forestiere et Miniere du Congo, commonly known as Forminiere; Com- panhia de Diamantes de Angola, referred to as Diamang; and Consolidated African Selec- tion Trust, Ltd., to be referred to as CAST. Forminiere, established in 1906, controls four subsidiary holding companies, Beceka and the triumvirate known as EKL or Enrte Iasal Luebo-Kasai, Lueta and Luebo,-which in return for a half interest granted to the Bel- gian government, obtained the exclusive concessions to mine diamonds in the Belgian Congo. Diamang, incorporated in 1917, owns the concession to mine all alluvial deposits in Portuguese Angola. Forminiere has a 25% interest in Diamang and their diamond fields are contiguous. The two concerns usually follow the same policy. CAST controls more than 75% of the production of the Gold Coast, controls the production of Sierra Leone through a subsidiary, and has extensive ownership in the French West African Soguinex mining company and the Ouganghi properties of French Equatorial Africa. 10. "Pipe" mines are to be distinguished from "alluvial" deposits or mines. In a "pipe," the diamonds are found in their original matrix, "magma," and are concentrated in a cylindrical area extending down towards the earth's center. The only "pipes" known to exist today are located in the Kimberley area of South Africa.